I am wondering one thing. When will I see the Second Reality for the modern computers? I don't think I have seen it! I still see the Second Reality and it really glues me to the monitor as no demo out there!!!

Imagine how the old Second Reality would look with the new technology! I am still waiting for the new SR on the PCs...

I am still trying to analyze the facts that makes me so obsessed to watch this demo again and again..

yeah classic ofcourse but then i rather say atari rulez than consider these boys to be gods... music is cool, but just as demomusic from the old times. and the demo itself? nice to watch and keep into your collection, otherwise... err no!!

Yep, gotta give a 'rulez'. Most impressive about it is definately the design. The effects aren't really the best of that year (see Crystal Dream 2/Triton and Untitled/Dust), although way above the norm. It's great, and I don't think it will ever be forgotten by the (us) oldschoolers.

i probably saw this one too late (in 96 i think), i can't really find anything in it which let's me say "wow, a real classic". i don't like pm/skaven music, maybe that's the reason. and also, it isn't the best pc demo ever.

I have to support this one.. I know I lived in an area where there were practically no Amigas around, so I'd only been following pc stuff.. but this one definitely stood out far above all others. For visual/audio synchronisation and with what was obviously a major effort to put this thing together in style, it's still rare to find something this nice.

Even though it's become cool and trendy to hate it I still like it. Not enough to ever actually watch it again, but it was great for the first 10 times. :)

By no means the best demo ever (anymore).. more like the minimum standard for a good demo. After all, this is THE demo that has nearly become some sort of symbol of the demoscene, you can't put that aside even if you hate it.

It may be nothing exceptional now, it may be more than 8 years old, it may also not beat the amiga demos of its time, but this is the megademo that made me (and most pc old-timers) a scener. With the help of Unreal of course. So respect (and a rulez vote) is absolutely mandatory. And the music... OMG the music! Make no mistake ppl, this demo almost singlehandedly started the pc scene.

but it WAS a groundbreaking demo both in effects and design, (btw: i love it's music even nowadays :) AND look at it's continuity and sync. no pc demo was able to mess with SR (amiga demos were ;), and it defeated it's position for years and for reason. and do not forget the pc scene boom right ater asm93.

This is _the_ demo for people of the good-old DOS days. Hell, remember Final Reality, the PC benchmark (for a while)? Take a look at this demo and then watch final reality. They did a few scenes as a sort-of tribute to this demo I think.

rai: In my opinion this prod is actually UNDERrated, as many other mythical productions from both the Amiga and PC scenes (Unreal, Dope, 9fingers, Desert Dream, State of the art etc). We should not stick to the past and forget the future, but the past is what brought us here in the first place.

Yeah, there were better Amiga demos at the time, so what. This demo gave the PC scene a swift kick, and is probably responsible for recruiting hundreds into the scene. If it weren't for 2nd Reality, we might still be doing vectorballs and scrollers on the PC today... ok, maybe not. :) As cheesy and cliche as it may seem today, it's hard to find a modern demo with as much passion put into it as this one.

piece of turd. awful 93demoszchenetechno by purple motion, average stuff from skaven, awful colors from every coder, typical crap from pixel (jesus that orc standing on the rock).
yeah, this ruled back in 93-95, but now it's very outdated/overhyped. yes, the most important demo in pc-scene, but still a big piece of turd. check out the sword!:)

So beautiful. I don't care whether there was better amiga-demos around, I don't care if it's 8 years old and I especially don't care for people not liking this demo. This is a true classic. Go to any party with sceners on, play the purple motion-part of the soundtrack on the speakersystem, and watch as sceners get big grins on their faces after hearing teh first five notes, and realizing what's on :)
and yeah, I got my mother to drive me and my computer to a friend who had a surround system, just so I could enjoy the demo in full effect :) (I haven't seen any amidemos with dolby surround btw, so stfu ;)

this demo is the main reason why so many pc-groups started to appear in 1993/94. sure; the design is heavily inspired by "desert dream", but one can't really say that they are all that similar. "desert dream" is more like "unreal" was - more bragging and text. "second reality" is more of a journey. i really love it, and i watch it all the time on my oldskool-pc (just for the record, i also watch "desert dream" all the time on my amiga :) and the scene wouldn't have been the same without it. it's a timeless classic and anyone who's involved with the demoscene, both young and old, should have seen it.

ps! the music is legendary.. it really brings back memories for me.. and not just me, i think.. :)

This isn't the first demo I'd seen. But it definitely blew me away when my friend Lee came back from Germany with all his cool techno and a copy of Second Reality. It kicked some major ass on my teacher's poor 486SX 25 with 4 megs :P And it pumped out the tunes on the teach's stereo. I like... Mr. Bowen was probably used to the Reggae he played durring comp. classes :P

I see lots of people dissing the code :) Keep in mind that the coders had some input into the design of this production. Give them credit for putting together a good production rather than aiming to boost their egos by seeking out advanced routines.. and boosting their egos with a monumental production instead ;)

It was the year 1993. I remember a high school friend of mine handing me a couple of disks with the words "Second Reality" on the label and thinking, "What the heck is this?"
I did not quite know what to make of the title, but when my as the blue landscape scrolled with the opening credits, my AdlibFM accustomed ears experienced the greatest of shocks. A digital string section blasted through my 8-bit Sound Blaster card.
I soon realized that it wasn't a game, but a demonstration of computer graphics, and remember thinking to myself, "Why couldn't my PC games look and sound this good?"
Second Reality is one of the finest pieces of 486 nostalgia I know of. It's appeal is based on its balance between imagery and music, and timing. It is like a journey, it conveys emotion.
There may never be another 2nd Reality for me.
However, that doesn't mean that one of you may not be creating a 2nd Reality for someone else.

aargh, it cant be true, i didnt comment this one? i thought i did all the time ;D

anyway. i agree with ones saying its overrated. its true, its kinda piece of shit even. but it's got a nostalgic value, thats one. then, it is a real oldskool production - music, gfx, code - to the bone! i like both Crystal Dream and Desert Dream better, they got more atmosphere i think, but still this one is associated with old times, i just cant judge it without any emotions... i never really liked it but its part of the past and it is at least a little bit impressive. so.. no thumb down, no thumb up. SR is just around and there is no way to escape it for a true scener =]

I'd seen a few demos when this came out. but this is the one that kicked me up the arse, threw me round the room, and made me want to *make* demos. As PC demos go, it's seminal. Technically it just absolutely blew me away. It also features one of the best soundtracks of any demo ever... (and I'm sad enough to admit that I have the cityscene music as my ringtone :) )

Hrm, I suppose the new guys don't really appreciate this one, judging from the comments...
But for guys like me, this demo was sort of a pivot point.
We used to make fun of PCs and their scene... And with productions like this and Crystal Dream I/II, we honestly could not do that anymore (even though in CD I Triton put down PCs themselves).
So this demo is so important because it is the first mature, true megademo for PC.
The music is excellent, and the effects are arranged to the music perfectly. It has various moods, going from bombastic, to mellow to rave... It's just the complete demo :)
486, VLB display cards and GUS converted many Amiga/Atari people to PC. This demo and Doom were also important factors in that movement. PC has arrived!
And after all these years, I still love this demo. True quality doesn't fade away.

diamondie : ask uncle-x/mfx, he has ringtones of most major demos on his phone.

a demo that i would prefer to see on a mobile phone than on a pc/party screen.
still it probably was something for the sceners in 93.. but when i saw it when i discovered the scene two years after, it just looked like pure coderdesign..

Hmmm,.. ringtones! I have the ringtone from the beginning with the chessboard and the diamonds, but a friend of mine had the other in the part with the leaves and the water. Are there any other demoringtones in the net? I think we should do some! :)

The second reality ringtone was got from a greek scene friend in an image of which keys to press in my(almost mine) mobile phone. All the greek sceners in our close cycle have phones playing this ringtone, how original hehe :)

daaamn co0l demo! :)
Remeber i got this demo from a friend back in 94/95 :)
Saw it alot of times, even showed it to my friends and family as i can remember.
GFX is GREAT, music is GREAT, code is GREAT :)
Maybe one of the best demos ever made! no doubt!

Oh dammit Zone, you thumbed down this one ?
I think if you see this demo today it's just a maybe awesome demo. But if you discovered it in 1993... Well, you'd remember all the feeling passing thru your heart experiencing this demo.
Asm93 Amiga demo's where awesome but well, not legendary like this demo...
10 year after, are we going to see today's hardware capabilities clones of this demo ?
It could be so nice...

These comments are very funny :)
I like anticontrary demos. Actually, anticontrawhat is not the right word perhaps, but somehow,. this word slipped in my mind for the meaning I thought. It means, demos where the opinion about them are quite opposite,. I mean someone love it, others hate it and people wondered why did it made impact and others beleive it surelly should do! Something like Chimera for example ;)

But hey, it's crazy. The C64 conversion better??? How so?! Actually the C64 conversion could be better than it is ;P
If it wasn't for 2ndreal fame, it would be just another Smash Designs demo ;)

Did Amiga have (technically) better demos at the time? Many of these effects look like stuff done to death on the Amiga 500. But others resemble things that would not appear until until '94-ish on the AGA platform. (Mmm... Nexus-7.)

Another one of the finest PC demos ever. A bit dated, yes, but still pretty well constructed. The music stands on its own, as well. Five Musicians lost a good member when they got rid of Purple Motion...

havent commented this?
either i am stupid, or another database fuckup might jerk on me...
Absolutely classic, a true demo legend...
(i have to add that this was very slow on my 386dx40 with realtek vga :) ...back then...)

what someone wrote under fc's "unreal" commentaries... *this* is the definitive demo milestone. 2nd reality really marks that point where the whole demo issue started to get mature, concering code, design & style.

Optimus: I also like C64 conversion better. Well, it's more "incredible" and the music also sounds better. Like, it's too unfair to compare them! But hey! *This* was the first demo i watched, it was delivered with my Ultrasound and made me a demoscener!

Lylh: you are too well informed for a guy with "counterstrike" in his domain name. :> Go ahead and compare release dates!!!

C64 is better in coding just because it's C64, but as you already said it, it's unfair to compare. But personally I still prefer the PC original than the C64 conversion, because the second is ugly and I have enjoyed some C64 demos much more. I even prefer some other Smash Designs demos (Triage 3, Our Darkness) more than this. It's just that this C64 demo is more famous than anything else to non-C64 sceners. I also prefer the PC music because it simply sounds better, even if the SID is not that bad at all :)

Ok, added the video URL which was mentioned in the comments. Be aware of the low quality. You cannot "Ah, finally, after 10 years I can watch this demo again!" but "Hey look, I can watch 2nd realtiy while coding some stuff."

Very, very cool. I just watched this on my P2-300 DOS box and I was wowed. The 3D city scene, while dated-looking now, actually looks better than some other similar scenes from the time and the 2D parts hold up well against just about anything coming out today.

You need to understand the time this came from. There was absolutely nothing even measurably close to the quality, especially music. To say it sucks is just your ignorance of the era. This is by far the best demo of the time, unbeatable. This demo was the best of the best, period. Any comment otherwise shows sheer ignorance.

Speaking of ignorance.. Anyone claiming there was "nothing even measurably close" to this demo obviously hasn't seen many demos on other platforms during the same era.. It may have been something amazing for PC kids of the time, but for the rest.. Sorry, no.

in 93, when i was just learning to know demoscene, i did think that second reality was something awesome. later in my life i've learned and now i know that this demo is seriously nothing compared to the greatness they did put out on other platforms.

You need to understand the time this came from. There was absolutely nothing even measurably close to the quality, especially music. To say it sucks is just your ignorance of the era. This is by far the best demo of the time, unbeatable. This demo was the best of the best, period. Any comment otherwise shows sheer ignorance.

I trust Ominous is only refering to the PC scene. Yes, for a PC demo it was a masterpiece and a milestone at that time, but it was definitely not the only one, especially considering what had already been released on other platforms at that time (or even just considering Crystal Dream 2/Triton).

Ominous: I also trust you are aware that there were many other masterpieces on other platforms back then, that could easily compete with this one, both technically and artistically.

FIRST demo coming up with DOLBY SURROUND. that was the hype. cinema style. that's what we waited for in former days. nearly every FC prod was mindblowing, in style & music. but also a big YEAH for Marvel and Pixel... Love you all!

What can I say... I didn't get to see this prod until somewhere around '97 but still was pretty much blown away by it. Some of the effects still look good to me even without considering the age and the musical score has received countless listening hours from me.

One day a friend gave me loads of disks with games on it and included was this demo. This was the first demo I ever saw and I instantly fell in love with the music. So much that I spent months trying to find out how to make PC music, eventually I discovered trackers and the scene and started writing my own stuff in scream tracker and ultimately IT.

After 3 years of tracking myself and some friends got together with a local drum'n'bass DJ and MC and hired a venue and held our very first rave called "beyond Vinyl", we hooked up a PC with impulse tracker and played some of my drum'n'bass tunes alongside the DJ, we also had live visuals on a screen. This wasn't a demo party, it was a real drum'n'bass rave for the general public. The diference being that we displayed visuals from our favourite demos on a large screen.

A lot of the punters commented on the visuals and were intruiged. The projection screen we had was huge plus we had very good disco lighting to compliment it. Although they didn't understand the concept of the demo scene they thought it was the coolest thing ever and our rave became quite popular, at its peak we had over 600 ravers attending.

I owe my life to this demo because if I hadn't had seen it I would have never got into tracking and ultimately music.

Thanks to the future crew nowdays I produce dance music as a second job. The first tune I released on vynil was called "The Future, Always so clear" and was a tribute to the future crew. It was made entirely in Impulse Tracker.

When I come to this room, I must take off my hat and stand at attention for a while. I still remember the times when FC and Triton explored the world and the deepest outer spacies in such a great passion. And this one, Second Reality aka Unreal II, reminds a godfather for me.

As I remember it was in an “A-Z” Shop where I have seen it the very first time. It was absolutely amazing. As for so many this was the first pc-demo I have ever seen. It was the start of my interest in the demo scene and in coding visual effects. It was the beginning of a new era and it has changed and influenced my whole life. Thanks!

Graphically, it doesn't really live up to its reputation... for prods of its era. It feels too much like a mathematics tutorial with those colored lines and plasma... I prefer the Amiga ones which were more vivid visually (NEXUS 7!!).

BUT! This evil hellspawn of Future Screw absolutely owns in terms of its SOUND. Purplemotion and Skaven might have achieved the best in demomusic (as far 8 channel S3M is concerned) for a very long time.

(perhaps that is the reason why the Flash version sucks....)

P.S. I just found out yesterday that the ball scene would DIVIDE BY ZERO if you stuff the demo in a directory (had to run it from partition root)!! Now why didn't anybody tell me that? ;_; *sob *sob

This demo is simply rulez, because at that time the PC scene was just forming. SR collected the most important effects seen on Amiga 500, put them together and sync to some really awesome music ,and voila it's done.
It showed that a PC can able to match with the Amiga -this was not so obvious at that time :)). From that year on PC-scene, CD2 technically was better but the syncing was almost non-existent.

Anyway SR brought us a real demo-feeling maybe the first time on PC, and pushed many ppl to make similar products.
And thats the reason of the hype.

As important as this demo might be for the PC demoscene, I've only learnt to appreciate it because of the outstanding music. For me there is no getting by the fact that the 2d graphics are absolutely horrible as hell. Besides, design- and effectwise, there was much more exciting stuff happening on other platforms at the time. I remember this being hyped a lot after Assembly, and the first time I saw it was when it was shown on the big screen of The Party '93 - which happened to be the same party where Arte, Origin, 9 fingers and Full Moon were released. And except for the music it did not even come close to these. Thumb for music and demoscene recruitment impact only.

Seems this one is famous... But I have been doing something else for 15 years :). I love the music and the whole thing reminds me of those great amiga prods we had back then around 1993...Which is great !

Still so great to watch after all this time!!! To me, it never gets old!!! Simply love it!!! Sure most effects had already been seen on Amiga but the perfect match of the visuals and the awesome soundtrack by Purple Motion and Skaven! That's what makes it a perfect demo!

i enjoy watching second reality, and i especially enjoy the quality and diversity of music offered. however, it feels overdone to me. i'm not sure if i can express this properly, but i just don't feel that happy after watching this. piggy.

15 years later i can say... yes - it was for the pc´ians back then one of the first big revolutions. 2nd reality was pioneer work back then and it gave a slight view to those things that happened 3-4 years later as the pc became slowly a noticable system in our belowed amiga and c64 world...

Made a good impact as a breakthrough for the pc scene but, to be fair, the design is really poor and the graphics are truly horrible, even for 1993 (and even more if you compare to what the Amiga scene had to offer at the same time). Also I believe it tool too much of the spotlight compared to some other PC demos. A small thumb up for the nostalgia factor only.

Have you noticed a strange bug? It happens in all my PCs and dosbox too. The 3d whirlwind bobs in the 3rd part will move to wrong directions and crash if the directory of the demo is not located at root or something like that (try to put it in a bigger dir tree like C:\Demos\Fcrew\second for example and it happens. What a strange shit is that???

The problem is that you youngsters consider it boring because you weren't in the scene when it was released. At the time it was released most demos and games weren't very technically stunning or visually stimulating. When Second Reality was released it was one of the best demos to hit the x86 platform and I guess you just had to be there to realise that.

Seriously, people who thumb down without considering what existed at this particular moment on this particular machine are really not very serious.
It's like thumbing down a ZX81 demo because it has no colors, or saying that the first cars were lame because they did not have electric windows or ABS.
*sigh*

this prod sure made its way around. i remember people on my bbs talking about it allthough that was completely demoscene-unrelated.
i also remember floppys with a stylish self drawn future crew logo on it being swapped in the school break. nobody used the words "demo" or "production" back then. it was just the disk with the awesome! factor.

Thiis was far from the first demo I saw. But it was the one that made me - up til that point a staunch Amiga loyalist - sit up and take the PC demo scene seriously. "Hey, I suppose this platform isn't only good for doing spreadsheets after all..."

A friend told me that he had downloaded a new demo from a bbs. When I visited him he shaded the windows and pumped up the volume. Then the demo started and my jaw dropped. After this I started coding my first bbs intros.

For those who can't watch it clearly or run it correctly: 470 MB HQ video capture ftp://ftp.untergrund.net/users/hellfire/future_crew-second_reality-1993.mp4 from http://pouet.net/topic.php?which=8626&page=1&x=30&y=13 ...

hum I just discovered I didnt thumb this yet...
My first demo I've ever seen in end of 93 that started my interest in the demoscene. Back then I watched it over and over...and over....and over while it was running in a computer store on some pc :D

Probably the first demo I ever saw. Great effects and design, but it was the awesome music from purple motion and skaven that got me hooked :) ♥ Also this inspired me to learn how to program... overall amaizing prod!

'This video of Second Reality by Future Crew was captured and edited for Blu-ray
in the same manner as I would have done for a MindCandy Blu-ray release. My
goal for all DOS-era demos is to present them with a mixture of realism as well
as present them in the best possible light.' -Trixter

Certainly one of the best demos on PC in its day. Of course amiga had the upper hand as far graphics and design went, but this was one of the first really competent counterparts. I really don't understand how this is still (or at least was for a long time) the "best pc demo" in so many people's minds, just fast-forward two years ahead and there was immensly more maturity by then already. A lot of ugly parts here too; the plasma cube? rotozoomer? the particle cloud? And of course everything just presented on an empty black backgrounds without any sort of overarching design.

Far from hopeless though, the plasma after the rotozoomer especially with that part in the soundtrack is still something I do adore, wonderful melody and harmony. The soundtrack's pretty damn cheesy. PM did far, FAR better tracks. Apart from the cheesy instruments, the orchestral stuff by Skaven especially in the end is quite alright. Overall a fine piece of memorabilia from a simpler era.

I really don't understand how some people say this is better than Crystal Dream 2. The music is great...for the first two minutes, and then it becomes so boring you wish to unplug your speakers. The 3D graphics are inferior to CD2. Way over-rated. CD2 is far better in my opinion.

I've never been a big fan of 2nd reality. It's ok and I can understand the impact but there are better demos from the time on PC. I actually dig Optic Nerve-demo from the same compo more than 2nd reality due to better looking effects and a bit better palette. But 2nd reality does have a nice pace to it and does work on almost anything with a 486 or better cpu so for being a solid and high content production that almost anyone could run is something to pay atleast some admiration 2nd reality is always a fun to watch so that is why I'm giving it a fair thumb up.

What, in my humble opinion anyhow, makes Second Reality the classic it is is the fact it is one of the first big titles on the PC for which the creators decided to treat the demoscene like the art form it is.

Second Reality's contemporaries usually followed the following pattern:

FC's own Unreal did that heavily a year earlier, in 1993 itself (Second Reality's year), CD2 still did that heavily. Not Second Reality though. To me, that is what makes it great. Technologically it's not the absolute pinnacle, not even for its era and the music does have its cheesy qualities but the package as a whole simply stands out of a contemporary crowd of mostly technical demonstrations.

demoscene? well, you made it relevant. nuff said. can't believe I haven't thumbed it yet.
Found it on that bundled "Soundblaster Pro" CD-ROM, which included all kinds of demoscene content. I couldn't stop watching all of this stuff, including situations like "hey dad, look what your 386 can do!". But well, considering all that content in this particular cd, 2nd reality totally won. And so I got curious about the demoscene, only much later figuring out what it "actually is". And then embracing it. Thanks for having me!

while i was not present at the party i have been told that this one was shown in an isolated classroom while the real demos ( Amiga demos ) were shown on the bigscreen. Well its a thumb up for the demo